The present invention relates to a female part for forming a releasable connection to a male part that is configured to be fastened in a mouth, comprising a housing that is configured to be fastened to a dental prosthesis and an insert that is insertable into the housing.
Such female parts are used in dental prosthetics to be able to attach a removable denture or some other type of dental prosthesis in a releasable manner in the mouth. With an increase in the duration of use, the holding force with which the female part is retained on the male part may subside due to wear, for example.
In simpler embodiments of the female parts, such as those known from EP 867 154 A1 by the same patent applicant or WO 2011/027229 A2, the original holding force can be restored by replacing the insert. This has the disadvantage that additional replacement parts must be provided and these parts must be changed to set the holding force.
Activatable female parts which make it possible to adjust the holding force are also known. For example, EP 0 894 480 A1 by the same patent applicant describes a female part having a rotatable adjusting ring which acts on the insert. EP 1 021 999 A1 by the same patent applicant has a female part that cooperates with a lamellar insert. This type of female part is designed for continuous adjustability, which makes it difficult to adjust a specific desired force level.